This is the first annual awards of GPS products for PocketGPSWorld.com. We decided it was about time that GPS manufacturers were rewarded and receive recognition for the products they create, so we decided for the year end of 2003 we would create a new award ceremony, and this would be called the PocketGPSWorld.com Awards 2003. The Team and Reviewers at PocketGPSWorld.com would look at products that have been released but more importantly reviewed by PocketGPSWorld.com within 2003 and these products would then be voted on bearing in mind both the product, the review and the experience gained by each team member.
There were 10 categories chosen to host products, and these were the nominated products for voting on in the PocketGPSWorld.com Awards 2003.
After much examining, and hours of testing each product, we have now awarded three winners (1st place, 2nd place and 3rd place) to each category.
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Leadtek's 9532 GPS Receiver is an in-car GPS Receiver. This carries an improved SirF engine over the 9531. This is well known for being included in some of the top GPS packages including being shipped with TomTom Navigator and PowerLOC Destinator. Leadtek have a whole host of cables to support various Pocket PC's including just a small selection Compaq iPAQ's, Casio's, HP Jornada's, Palms, Fujitsu Loox, XDA, PC Serial and many more. |
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The GlobalSat BR305 is a serial mouse GPS receiver that can be connected to around 13 different types of PDA as well as standard 9pin Serial and USB devices.
The GlobalSat BR305 serial mouse GPS receiver comes with just about everything you will need except PDA and software. There are different packages for the different PDA/PC types supported. |
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Holux GM-210 is a cheap alternative to an in-car GPS Receiver. Holux have cables to support Compaq iPAQ's, Casio's, HP Jornada's, Palm's, Fujitsui Loox, XDA, PC Serial and many more.
The GM-210 plugs into the accessory socket via a Y adapter and allows you to power the GPS Receiver and also charge the Pocket PC a the same time. |
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TravRoute recently brought out their new Bluetooth GPS Receiver, and we have a unit here for review.
Although the CoPilot Bluetooth GPS Receiver looks familiarly like an Emtac/Socket BT GPS, I have been assured by ALK that it is not, and that it does have a different FCC ID showing it as a different product. |
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The GR-230 has a good specification chart including support for NMEA (38400 preferred), it sports a SiRF Star II chipset with embedded ARM7TDMI CPU, 12 parallel satellite-tracking channels for fast acquisition, high speed signal acquisition using 1920 time/frequency search channels, Low Power mode, SBAS (WAAS/EGNOS) and more! The GR-230 also comes with the standard SPP Serial Port Profile which Bluetooth uses to connect to a Pocket PC or PC. |
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TomTom are always an adopter of new technology and Bluetooth is no different. TomTom have teamed up with Leadtek again to produce a Bluetooth GPS and to place this under the TomTom brand name.
The TomTom BT GPS is a good all round performer, and performance is on-par with the EMTAC/Socket BT GPS. |
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SysOnChip are quite a relatively new company, formed in 1998 in Korea, they have brought several GPS products to market, one being their SysOnChip GPS CF Plus which we are reviewing here. When you first take a look at this magnificent GPS Receiver, first glances brings to mind a small form factor, and a stylish GPS (not bulky like many). Wait but it even has an antenna ? This is unusual for Compact Flash GPS Cards. |
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Haicom 303MMF is the worlds first hybrid GPS Receiver. As most who read Pocket GPS World on a regular basis will know I am always a fan of the GPS Mouse for in-car usage, primarily because of the TTFF's, the Receiver once it has power can go away and start acquiring satellites without the need for the PDA, but I also like them for their compactness and charger cables. Compact Flash Receivers are great if you want to go out walking with the GPS Receiver, and lets face it, we all want to do this from time to time. |
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In this review we are going to look at the Holux GM-270 Ultra. This is the XTrac version of the Holux Compact Flash GPS Receiver.
The Holux GM-270 is a well known work horse in the GPS Compact Flash card category. The Holux GM-270 Ultra comes in at a smaller form factor than other Compact Flash GPS Receivers on the market and sports XTrac. |
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Emtac / Transplant Computing Sleeve is a new GPS sleeve (the second one currently available for the Compaq/HP iPAQ).
Time To First Fix is fast with this sleeve, and is very reliable. The sleeve does stealth the COM port which does make it difficult for some software not designed to work with this sleeve to function correctly. |
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NAVMAN GPS 3450 is the successor to the original NAVMAN GPS 3000 package and 3400/3420. First made available in July 2003 and came bundled with Navman's own software SmartST Professional, which is Navman's own software and not rebadged. SmartST Pro comes bundled with Pan Euopean Maps. The hardware has been vastly improved upon over the NAVMAN GPS 3000. |
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When you open the box (which is very small), you find the Holux GM-251+ sleeve, along with a 12 volt car charger that plugs into the right hand side of the GPS Sleeve and the accessory plug will plug into your in-car accessory socket.
Unfortunately the Holux GM-251+ isn't kitted out with any windscreen or vent mount, making it a little difficult to use in the car, although most mounts that you find reviewed at Pocket GPS will work with this, especially the mounts that have retracting side walls. |
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The Meridian Color is one of Magellan's newer range of handheld GPS Receivers. The Meridian range are very rugged, built to last and are for the serious navigators in mind. I have large fingers, and one thing I find with the Garmin receivers is that sometimes my fingers are a little too large, the Meridian Color, not only from a size proportion, but it's buttons are better laid out and easier to press. |
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Spring 2003 Garmin announced the introduction of a new range of GPS receivers: the Gekos. They have created two new models the Geko 101 and the Geko 201. These are small, trendy and snuggle in the palm of your hand.
They are about the size of the Nokia 8210 mobile phone. The main differences between the two is that the 201 has a Computer interface and WAAS, routes and enhanced features. |
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The SporTrak Pro is one of Magellan's newer range of handheld GPS Receivers. The SporTrak range are small, rugged, built to last and are for the serious map navigators in mind.
The SporTrak Pro comes standard with 9mb ram which includes a base map. The North America base map includes US Cities, Interstate highways, political boundaries, major waterways and airports. |
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The Garmin GPSMAP 295 is an excellent, professional, portable GPS navigation device.
It is expensive to buy and maintain but will appeal to keen amateurs who want a ‘stand alone' system with full support and excellent colour screen visibility.
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Th e Garmin Street Pilot III Deluxe is an integrated standalone Street Routing solution for the car. It comes supplied with full maps with City Navigator allowing you to download these to the supplied 128mb Storage Card.
The Street Pilot III Deluxe is certainly an affordable system when you compare it to the dedicated in-car systems that cannot be removed and placed in another car. |
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Th e Navman iCN630 is an integrated standalone Street Routing solution for the car. It comes supplied with full European maps with and 128mb RAM (64mb as storage for maps)
Until recently Garmin were the only company to offer a dedicated portable system that can be moved between cars, but Navman have change this to now bring direct competition to the market. |
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The Garmin iQue 3600 is a good combined navigation product. However I was disappointed as I have been really spoiled with the Street Pilot III Deluxe and I was half expecting a Street Pilot III Deluxe in a smaller form factor in PDA style, and with the mapping errors and the power save screen turning off (only on battery mode - not with the automotive kit), really was not what I received. Garmin have with all intense purposes made this an affordable version of their well known top of the range Street Pilot III Deluxe |
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TomTom Navigator 2 was first made available in April 2003, a year on, the TeleAtlas maps are up to date as of December 2002, and comes in both a Software only version with country maps, a compete Western Europe map package (requires a single country set to be purchased), and also a complete hardware package which includes a Leadtek 9532 GPS Receiver, a windscreen suction mount, a vent mount, and a dashboard mount to fix the windscreen mount to. |
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TravRoute recently released a new version of CoPilot in the US, and after a little wait, the new version is now available in Europe.
The new version has had it's name changed slightly. TravRoute's new product range is now called CoPilot Live, and then follows the designation of the device it's primarily intended for. Therefore the version we are currently reviewing here is called CoPilot Live Pocket PC 4. |
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PowerLOC Destinator 3 is the successor to PowerLOC Destinator 2. Destinator 3 was first made available in late 2003 and comes in both Pan European and North American versions. The European version includes maps of UK and Europe. Destinator 3 has some neat new features like Custom Maps, Multi-Part Journeys, Birds Eye View, newer high resolution maps (NavTech Q2-2003), avoid roads, complete country-wide maps (no more segments!). |
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Memory-Map 2004 Topographical GPS software.
Aimed at outdoor pursuits enthusiasts it includes 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey Explorer maps of the main recreation areas of the UK.
On the PC side new ways of viewing the maps include split windows and a lifelike 3D View. |
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Anquet Technology Ltd. is a British software development house specialising in mapping software for the leisure market. |
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The Maptech Pocket Navigator is one of a number of variations of the Memory-Map family of topographical GPS programs.
This application is complemented by a number of mapping solutions and programms. We have a look and see what Maptechs offerings are in this area. |
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NavGPS is a well thought out and comprehensive aeronautical navigation system for Pocket PC's and works with most types of GPS Receivers. Versions are available for Windows (PC), ARM/ Xscale, MIPS and SH3.
The system is available with vector based worldwide topographical maps and aeronautical data and can be downloaded from www.gonavgps.com. |
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The VFR software was downloaded together with Europe.wa1 (compressed file of airspace data), UK.wp3 (UK terrain) and France.wp3. This, plus the password provided by WinPilot, is all you need to get started. |
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Pocket FMS is free but uses a shareware based (donation) system to help support the project.
Pocket FMS supports both PC and PDA's and although is still in beta, is an exciting piece of navigation software.
A most impressive, instinctive and practical start with a new piece of software and comforting to find a complete and up to date database of airports, including specific runways and VOR"s. |
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